Collection: Janna van Hasselt

I am working in the space between painting and sculpture; taking ceramics from the white plinth to the wall and challenging the traditional expectations of clay.  Works are created manipulating clay and slip using varied actions present in basic life tasks – kneading, rolling, stretching, slicing, stacking, piercing, plaiting. I’m relinquishing symmetricality, earthy tones and plain supports in favour of flopping forms and strident tones. 

I find inspiration in the everyday; the minutiae of life as a parent. Precarious stacks of laundry, collapsing play huts, unraveling braids, frosting heavy cupcakes and the ongoing balance of family life.

This body of work features extrusions which are manipulated to create delicate networks of porcelain. Some are flat and the frets weave together; others are more sculptural and interconnect haphazardly to protrude from the wall at all angles. The details are sometimes carefully outlined and emphasized and other times are covered in a rainbow of pooling glaze as if to camouflage together. The backing of each piece is coated in a buzzing neon shade of pink, orange or red; creating a glowing halo when set against a white wall.

About Janna:

Janna is a printmaker turned ceramicist. She has a BFA from the Ilam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch (2004), and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2014) as the recipient of a Fulbright Award. She has also undertaken residencies in London, The Netherlands, Belgium and Pennsylvania and exhibited throughout New Zealand. Her major solo exhibition at the Ashburton Art Gallery Chromasill (2021) was the result of her winning the 2020 Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award.

Janna filled the Ngātahi stand at the 2023 Aotearoa Art Fair with ceramics and has recently created immersive installations at The Dowse Art Museum, The Arts House Trust, The Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics and Aratoi Museum. She is a busy Mum to two arty girls who keep company in her Ōtautahi home studio.